


Dirty paws

by Supertights



Category: Anna Dressed in Blood - Kendare Blake
Genre: Cats Make Everything Better, Friendship is Magic, Gen, Gift Giving, Grief/Mourning, Mother-Son Relationship, Not Beta Read, POV Third Person, Really Dead Girlfriends, Thinking is a Voluntary Sport
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 10:10:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1105562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Supertights/pseuds/Supertights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas Lowood had always been indifferent towards Tybalt until he was dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dirty paws

Theseus Cassio Lowood was grounded. Probably for a month but after a week it felt like year, so he was probably going to be insane by the end of the term of his incarceration. His best friends, Thomas Sabin, male witch, and Carmel Jones, fierce batswoman, had been banned from the house by his mother, to impart upon them all, the seriousness of his situation.

He groaned from the sofa and crossed his arms again, feeling the too tight bandages around his waist under his loose tshirt, then regretted the movement because his painkillers were wearing off and now even his pain was in pain. He changed the channel on the television for about the twentieth time in the last two minutes, watching re-runs of American's Next Top Model for a few seconds before turning the television off and tossing the remote control onto the coffee table, next to his sock clad feet. "God, Mom! Really? A whole month?"

" _She_ is not going to help you," she said pleasantly from the kitchen. "I seem to have trouble remembering the exact time frame I set, it might be two months."

Cas could see the athame on the kitchen table, immersed in a jar of his mother's latest concoction of cleansing. It reflected his own unhappy face, pouting. "Parley?" he asked, making a half-hearted attempt at the time-out signal.

His mother appeared in the kitchen doorway, wiping her hands on dishcloth. "You, sir, are not in a position to negotiate." A small smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. She looked tired and sad more than he was comfortable with lately. 

"Anything! Name your price," he begged. "I can't stand it anymore, I need to get out of here and--"

She fixed him with the stare all mothers can bestow on disappointing children. "You almost died, Cas," she said softly. "I almost lost you. Was it worth it?"

He turned his head away stubbornly. "You know it was. Got those guys in England off our backs too."

"I'm sorry about Anna." With a sigh, she crossed the room and sat next to him, placing a hand on his knee and squeezing. "Love is a great gift, it leads us on such adventures and teaches us so much about ourselves. What have you learned, dearest son?"

On some level he'd known that he and Anna would never be together. It was a situation that would never be feasible. A ghost hunter and his ghost, it was a cool love story though. He thought about it for a few minutes, giving up on trying to work out what his mother wanted to hear and just spoke from his heart. "I learned to be unselfish," he replied.

She hugged him, pulling him into an embrace so tight he might've cried a little. "Okay, you're still grounded until the doctor gives you a pass for more strenuous pursuits, or until school starts again, whichever comes first. But--," she said, holding up her hand for him to wait, so she could finish. "You can invite your friends over for a movie night, pizza is my treat."

He held his breath, waiting for more buts, they never came. She pushed herself off the sofa, leaving the room for a minute or two, coming back with his cell phone. She kissed his forehead while he was distracted checking his messages, and returned to the kitchen, humming softly under her breath.

"Praise the digital gods," he muttered, immediately texting Thomas and Carmel.

 

 

  ***

They arrived together, not by any plan, more because they were scared that Cas' mother would change her mind if they were even a minute late. It was raining out but Carmel was protected under a large yellow umbrella, she gave him a huge white teeth smile when he opened the door. Thomas stood apart from her, his huge duster keeping him somewhat dry.

Cas met them at the door, slipping under his mother's arm and greeting his best friends with an uncharacteristic hug, pulling them both in and holding them in place for a few seconds longer than was socially acceptable. His mother hovered close, took the umbrella from Carmel and reached for the coat but Thomas shook his head.

Retreating back to his sofa slowly, Cas put his feet up on the table again. Movies had been chosen via messages passed between them over days, they were in the player, ready to go. Popcorn was warm and buttered in a large bowl next to Cas' feet.

"Ahem," said Thomas, coughing slightly. "I, uh, have a thing." He paused for a moment then shrugged, shoved a hand in one of his coat large pocket's and pulled out a kitten. "Surprise?!"

Cas and his mother froze, looked at each other, looked at the kitten, then back at each other.

It was tiny, bedraggled, a sad excuse for a cat really. It was a small ghost with short white fur, slicked down with the rain. Harder to see were the silvery stripes and spots all over it's body but a face like a tiny judging Siamese or Burmese with none of the darker toned points. A mixed breed in any case. It's eyes looked accusingly from one human to the next in the room until it came full circle and fixed it's bright blue eyes back on Cas.

"Uh," said Cas.

"Thomas--," said Cas' mother, her tone chilly.

"Jesus, Sabin!" bellowed Carmel.

The kitten was unimpressed for it's part, meowing pathetically, wriggling in Thomas's hand, tiny claws grabbing at his skin, drawing beads of blood.

"I found it," mumbled Thomas, mysteriously, wincing at tiny teeth gnawing at his flesh. "Out the back of the shop, in the alley, hiding under my car. Didn't see a mother, can't have a cat in the shop with the dog, it's too small to leave alone, didn't want it to get run over, looks like a ghost--" He paused, looking to see if any of his excuses had held up under scrutiny.

Cas' mother disappeared into the kitchen and Cas worried for a second, getting ready to rise and follow but she returned quickly with an old towel. She took the kitten from Thomas, giving the teenage boy a withering look so caustic he backed away and shrank into his coat.

"Melting," whispered Carmel, mimicking the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz a little, in a unashamedly mocking tone.

"A white ghost tabby," murmured Cas' mother in disbelief, drying the kitten off and unleashing a thunderous purr from the tiny beast. She flipped it suddenly. "It's a boy," she announced, sniffing. "Dirty little paws."

"Give us a minute, guys," said Cas, struggling up from his spot on the sofa. He reached his mother just as she began to cry, and closed the door behind him. He put his arms around her and hugged her awkwardly. "I can tell Thomas to take it back?" he suggested.

"You will not! He will not survive on his own and-- well, I have been a little lonely, you know," she admitted. "I thought a lot about another cat but it felt disloyal to Tybalt." The kitten meowed angrily from his towel, caught between their bodies. Cas had always been indifferent to Tybalt, only missing him after he was dead at The Obeahman's hands. "Tybalt was a great cat, the best." She sniffed loudly. "Actually, no, he was a temperamental little shit but he saved us a lot of grief over the years and--and we owe him big time. We can't return the favour but I see a bit of Tybalt in this little guy."

"He looks more like an Elvis than a Tybalt Two to me." Cas studied the kitten, hoping his mother wouldn't settle on something Shakespearian again.

"Elvis?" she repeated. "Oh right, the white sequin jumpsuit, I get it." She held the boy kitten up and looked him in the eye. "I think Elvis is going to fit in quite nicely around here." She wandered away, talking to the kitten.

Cas sighed a breath of relief, and wandered back to the living room. "What?" he asked, easing back down onto the sofa. Carmel and Thomas were frozen in place, having not moved an inch since he left the room. "You--" he pointed at Thomas. "Don't do shit like that without warning me first."

"We weren't sure if we just got grounded too," said Carmel, irritated. "Do you ever think before you act?" she added, poking Thomas in the arm.

Thomas nodded and shrugged an apology. "Sorry but if you two had any idea what I went through to get that brat of a cat for your Mom, you wouldn't say I was thoughtless. There's enough blood on the passenger seat to set me up for murder, and my car is smells like cat sh--"

"Thanks!" said Cas, grinning.

"Enough!" added Carmel. "Movie time."


End file.
